How do you punctuate single words in quotation marks... does the placement of the quotation mark depend upon the punctuation used?

I was just writing something that brought up a problem I have with punctuation. I shall use the sentence I just wrote as an example.

I believe that the following sentence is correct: ””‘Corrupt’ and ‘unscrupulous’ fit this company’s business practices to a ‘T.’” For Jellies with aging eyes, like me, the period is inside of the quotation marks.

What would be the order of the punctuation if it is a question. For instance:

“Does this business’s business practices fit the words ‘unscrupulous’ and ‘corrupt’ to a ‘T?’” Or would it be “Does this business’s business practices fit the words ‘unscrupulous’ and ‘corrupt’ to a ‘T’?” Again, for those of us with vision problems, I put the question mark inside the quotation marks in the first sentence. In the second sentence, the question mark is outside of the quotation marks.

Basically, does the change of a period to a question mark, an exclamation point, or other punctuation mark, change the order of period/question mark/etc. and quotation mark?

25 Answers

I use British English, and we would always place the full stop or question mark outside of the quotation marks, as in your third example. However, I wouldn’t put T in quotation marks in the first place.

@Arisztid I have the 15th edition Chicago Manual right here. If the quote is a question to begin with, it belongs inside the quotation marks, but a period is still required after. p.467 #11.80
For quotations within quotations, I’ll give you the example as it is written in the book;
“Don’t be absurd!” said Henry. “To say that ‘I mean what I say’ is the same as ‘I say what I mean’ is to be as confused as Alice at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. You remember what the Hatter said to her: ‘Not the same thing a bit! Why you might just as well sat that I see what I eat” is the same thins as “I eat what I see”!’” pp. 453–454 #11.33
I understand that your eyes are probably like mine, so allow me to clarify; Double quotation mark, exclamation point, single quotation mark, double quotation mark. Looks goofy as all get out but that’s considered proper.
The T does not need quotation marks.
The change is indicative that it is yours, therefore whatever you choose, it is not part of the quote and so goes outside of it.
As a side note, for better readability, I would not use the word “business” twice in a sentence, much less back to back. I’d replace the first with the word “company” or “organization”.

So you’re writing fiction and not actually quoting someone?
I thought you were quoting a person for an article you were writing. Let me address these one at a time. As I understand the Chicago Manual, punctuation marks never affect the order. If you are quoting someone’s question, as in; her only line in the movie was “Where’s my Ukelele?” the Q mark is inside the quotation marks. If you quote someone as a question, as in; who was it that said “all that glitters is not gold”? You see the Q mark is outside the quotes because it was not originally a question but a statement.
If it is fiction that you yourself are writing- He said with a sharp glare, _“what a buffoon!”.
He said with a sharp glare, “What a buffoon!” He said with a sharp glare; “What a buffoon!”
Either will work. @davidbetterman addressed the other thing, so I’ll leave that one alone. I hope this helped you.

@Trillian Are you saying you can use a semi-colon between the main body of a sentence and a quoted part?
Trillian wrote:
He said with a sharp glare, “What a buffoon!” He said with a sharp glare; “What a buffoon!”
Either will work.

@susanc I had gone back to be sure and I had misread. It actually said a colon, but only if the introduction were longer or more formal. Don’t think I’d leave anyone out to dry, I always go back and check if I’m not positive. I was actually going to PM him again. I actually still will, and leave this as is.

@Trillian Actually, no, I rarely write fiction and, if I do, it is short. I write essays for the most part, often verbose, but I would like to be able to write dialogue if I wished. I have been told that I am good at essays but my dialogue leaves a lot to be desired.

Yes that helped much. Thankyou. :)

@Trillian and @susanc From what I remember, a semicolon is used to seperate two complete thoughts, like a period.

Question mark goes inside the quotes if it is part of the quoted content and outside if not.

In American English, period and comma go inside, semicolon and colon outside, and question mark and exclamation point either inside or outside depending on whether they belong to what’s inside the quotes.

I can’t see a justification for a semicolon between dialogue and attribution.

@Arisztid – Oh, and don’t worry too much about it. If you’re writing for personal pleasure, write whatever you think is most clear in situations like this were there is no definite grammatical rule. If you’re writing to be published, and you’ve got your grammar correct elsewhere throughout your manuscript, the editor will change this particular grammar to fit the guidelines of the publication anyway.

@HungryGuy: You wish. The days of the line-by-line editor are mostly gone. I shudder when I read some books. A recent pamphlet for a really expensive Spa (Canyon Ranch) just appeared; one sentence said, “We eschew a carefully selected and delicious low-calorie cuisine.”

@gailcalled – LOL. I bet that pamphlet was written by a resort employee and given to a printer to produce. Although, you’re probably correct in this day of downsizing and outsourcing, that manuscripts don’t get the scritiny that they once did. Yet, I had one editor point out to me that my dates and my character’s ages were inconsistent from the beginning to the end. That tells me that some editors still pore through a story looking for little details like that, since, as I’m sure you know, readers love to point out “oopses” in stories…